Leandre and Claire were two homeless tramps who created a home of their own with cardboard, Sellotape, brooms and a lot of imagination. Dance, magic and juggling ensued but the main purpose through storytelling and audience interaction was laughs, and for me this was weak. However, it was received well. I overheard: ‘This is so cute.’

This was in contrast to the skills-based show of the Valayev Family Circus. There were two drummers, two performers and one high wire. Every trick on a wire you can think of they did: walking across the wire, bouncing across, backwards, forwards, trays on feet, sitting on a stool on the wire, bicycle, unicycle and (the best one) blindfold and feet bound to the wire whizzing around and around. They had little in terms of presentation skills and rattled through each trick, sometimes repeating the good ones. It was made to look easy. A good, honest wire-walking show.

Honesty was hardly present at Café des Illusions. Magic, mayhem and prestidigitation were set in a café.

Two characters, George and Lucienne, presented a highly polished show. Appearances, disappearances, vanishing tricks, levitations, transformations, transportations, and silly magic were all applied to the multitude of objects one finds in a café. There was a lot of chat in heavily accented English, and money tricks followed by 'It also works in Sterling!’ My favourite trick was the pouring of water into three glasses; each time the liquid turned into red or blue or white. The glasses were poured back into the jug, returning to translucent water. Lastly the water was poured into the fourth glass, changing to green. A top visual show, using the magic of theatre and theatrically creative magic.